Nikon has announced the development of an AF-S NIKKOR 500mm f/5.6E PF ED VR fixed focal length super-telephoto lens for FX bodies. There’s no release date or pricing information. Not even a photo!
The new glass is a major product for Nikon. With Photokina coming up in late September, the launch may tie in with the German photo show.

The only information Nikon is willing to divulge relates to the lens’ significantly lighter and more compact build than its comparable predecessors. The release doesn’t state exactly how much lighter or smaller the lens is, but the insiders at DPReview called it at an impressive 50 percent and 30 percent, respectively.

This improvement is due to the adoption of Phase Fresnel (PF) lens element.

The PF lens element additionally ‘compensates chromatic aberration utilising the photo diffraction phenomenon’. This phenomenon, according to Nikon, has to do with light characteristics as a waveform.

‘When a waveform faces an obstacle, it attempts to go around and behind it, and this characteristic is referred to as diffraction. Diffraction causes chromatic dispersion in the reverse order of refraction.’

Nikon explains in little detail that this enables fewer lens elements, achieving a smaller and lighter body, than other lenses that ’employ an optical system using the photorefractive phenomenon’.